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16 August 2012

Divemaster Internship Week 1

I arrived on the island of
Malapascua a week ago to start my Dive Master Internship with Evolution Divers I’ve had my Open Water
certification since 2003 and have been diving pretty regularly since moving to
Singapore in 2008 and have logged over 160 dives in the process and visited
some of Asia’s most beautiful spots (with an infinite number left to travel
to). I’d spoken to a number of fellow
divers about where to progress to in my diving and had heard horror stories
about DM courses where you are treated as a general dogsbody and put into the
most extreme situations to find out how you react under pressure. Now as I like my diving to be as gentle and
stress free as possible it has taken me a while to change my mindset to take on
a professional certification where I am now responsible for the well being and
enjoyment of others. On deciding to take
the plunge I canvassed my friends to find a dive shop in a location with
interesting diving that also had a strong commitment to safety and where I
would be learning exactly how things should be done as well as getting a wide
range of experience with customers from open water and discover diving courses
to leading experienced divers on dives to explore the area and Evolution Divers
seemed to fit the bill.

I arrived at the dive shop bright
and early in the morning on seas that were slowly starting to calm down from
the effects of typhoon Saola as it passed to the east of the Philippines where
I met the owners Dave and Matt along with the rest of the staff. Shelagh, a staff DM, helped me find
accommodation on the island and settle in after breakfast. My first order of business was to complete my
Emergency First Response course which I did the following day, learning how to
provide CPR and going through a number of emergency simulations. I also had the opportunity to go for my first
dive. It was a gentle dive on the local
“house reef” where I spotted a pair of sea mice walking along the sea bed in
addition to a number of pebble crabs and sea horses. Nothing too taxing to start!

Sea Moth

The next day the work
started. As much as I am going to be
working with all the instructors at Evolution (Dave, Matt and Jamie), Dave is
my main point of contact and we had a long discussion on the aims of the DM
course, what it entailed, what I was expected to do and I was handed my bag of
books that I would be using as references through the course (along with any
other relevant material I can get my hands on) along with a couple of dive shop
t-shirts emblazoned with DMT (Dive Master Trainee) so any other diving
professional would know exactly who I was and where I belonged in the pecking
order (at the bottom). We also went
through the role of a DM/DMT in assisting the instructor during their various
courses and things to be alert for. As
there were currently few students in the shop Dave suggested that I “hit the
books” and get as much of the knowledge reviews done as possible while they
were quiet and I got to observe a Deep Dive Adventure briefing for a customer who
was going to experience what Malapscua is famous for – Thresher Shark dive –
the next morning at 5am. (Note to self –
when next selecting a location to do dive training at, find out what time the
first dive of the day usually is, because a 5am start means getting up at 4am
to ensure that all the gear etc is on the boat). The next day an open water student arrived
and I spent my time observing the instructor as she took the student through
the briefings, knowledge reviews, confined and open water exercises. It has been 10 years since I did my Open
Water, so it was a good chance to refresh the rusty memories of all my
skills. I am now practising my skills
because as part of my assessment I am going to be marked on my ability to
demonstrate 24 of the open water and free diving skills.

The rest of the week was pretty
quiet as I had to go back to Cebu to get the extension on my visa, but I
arrived back at the shop late yesterday evening to find a number of advanced
students and my diving timetable for the next week is going to be very full as
we also have an open water class starting in a few days.